6. Contemplate thread scoring : 11:20

I'm somewhat interested in long threads on some mailing lists, as
chances are those are the ones with cool insights. I can set my
threshold to 500, add one to every thread with replies, and sort by
score...

4. Debian Bug Squashing Party : 17:05

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution, the
GULL (Groupe romand des Utilisateurs de Linux et de Logiciels Libres)
will be organising a bug-squashing party that will be open to members
and non-members.

Here is the plan:

1. We lock 10 to 40 volunteers in a large room in the building of Nimag SA.

2. The volunteers are provided with all of the computers, bandwidth,
electricity, pizza, and beer that they need to work well.

3. The volunteers fix bugs listed in Debian Bug-Tracking System (BTS)
http://bugs.debian.org from 12h00 to 20h00.

4. A bug is considered fixed when a solution has been found, verified by
another volunteer, and an email sent to the package maintainer.

The GULL will pay for the food and drink of all volunteers who fix at least one
bug (even a tiny one). The others will be expected to pay their way or clean
up the mess. Or have a rock tied to their feet and be thrown into the lake.

There will be a number of demonstrations of various techniques used in the
eradication of bugs:

- how to use the BTS and the reportbug program

- building a test system (stable, testing, or unstable) in a subdirectory using

debootstrap and running programs from it

- using diff, patch, strace and gdb

- anything else that comes up

PLEASE: If you want to come to the party, please send a note to
[email protected] stating:

- who you are and that you want to come to the party

- whether you will or will not be bringing a portable computer with a network

interface

- what bugs you want to fix or what packages you wish to work on (if you

already have an idea)

- whether you want to give a demonstration or participate in the organisation

3. GCBirzan's cool SQL contest --- education : 17:09

*GCBirzan* I didn't really like the fact that the teacher used a lot of
examples, but again, that's just me... (and I knew what he was
talking about :P)
*GCBirzan* but in the end, he had a contest, who'd write $query faster :P
*GCBirzan* since all our CS teachers suck (no exageration), I've never had a
competitive environment to learn in
*GCBirzan* really liked that

2. More GCBirzan stories --- education : 17:17

*GCBirzan* I teach CCNA courses for a local Cisco Academy
<sachac> Mmm. In our database class, we're allowed to use any database
management system we want as long as it groks SQL.
<sachac> Niiiiifty.
<sachac> So you also have your teaching stories. =)
<sachac> Tell! <grin>
*GCBirzan* you'd assume people that come there are a) generally clued or b)
interested
*GCBirzan* well, no, I don't :P
*GCBirzan* since you can't really have much of a class about how, say, a
router transmits a packet over to its next hop, if you they don't
know how ARP works
<sachac> Do they?
*GCBirzan* and then I go back to explaining ARP, and then I find out they
can't grope the concept of ethernet segments and so forth
*GCBirzan* and when I think I'm all done, and I go back to the original issue,
I find out they've forgotten everything :P
<sachac> <nod> So your problem is that they lack the essentials. When were
they supposed to have learned those?
<sachac> Err, lack the prerequisites.
*GCBirzan* no, I'm saying they're having the mentality of the Romanian student
:P

1. : 18:21

lots of students
problems because of few resources
frustrating to be a teacher and not be able to teach properly
what's holding them back?
you want to be able to teach better
you want to be able to get the message across
because the worst thing you can face each day is a classroom of bored, unmotivated, uninterested students who aren't learning
and it's painful to check exams and see a lot of failing marks
it hurts because you feel inadequate. you're not getting the job done.

if it's just a living
if the results of their teaching are good
other people will notice
there is a direct benefit
if they perform better in future classes

if we teach well the first time around, less need for reteaching
good recommendation letters
develop creativity and problem-solving (for teachers)